Fire
by VickyVicarious
Summary: Li is *just like Jet* in a way that he's never seen. And they're both still burning, and Jet wants Li more than he's ever wanted anything, and there's no way this could ever have ended well.


I say 'Li' instead of 'Zuko' because this is from Jet's POV.

Let me just preface this by saying Jet has issues.

* * *

Li is burned, scarred from it, so _angry_ because of it – and he's strong despite being so broken down, and he's so full of hate and need and that familiar burning that never ends no matter how long it's been, and Jet wants him immediately.

His desire only gets stronger when he hears Li speak, when he watches Li move like he's been made for exactly this, perfectly in time with Jet and silent and so in control but just _sizzling_ underneath it all, and his matching swords flash through the dark. And his eyes are bright, and his scar is so red and just everywhere, and every time Jet looks at it all he sees is his village burning.

He wonders if it's easier to live with such visible scars. If maybe having them branded across his face would mean they wouldn't constrict his heart and _hurt_ so deeply and never ever stop burning inside him so hatefully. But one look at Li shoves that notion aside, because Li is _just like Jet_ in a way that he's never seen. No one else has been so exactly injured, burned to the point where their skin hardened into a shell and then cracked and spilled someone entirely new out, someone so terrible and lost and wanting to scream from the nightmares every night. Jet's breath catches because that is what he sees in Li and what he feels every moment in himself, and it makes him _want_ so badly.

He wants Li by his side. He wants Li to hunt with him in the night, to walk with him in the day and to never leave no matter how terrible Jet has become because Li is exactly the same, he'll understand beyond what Smellerbee and Longshot could ever manage, he breathes the same air that always smells of smoke and burning flesh.

Jet wants to grip Li's face in his hands and taste it, to see if the scar is salty or will become salty with tears or if it is completely dry and cracked and rough and hardened like stone. He wants to put his tongue out and taste the fire that lingers there. He wants to taste it everywhere in Li, because Li is _made_ of fire, that's all Jet can see in him and he understands, he's the same way, he can't ever escape the burning either. And Jet wants to go to sleep with Li there and wake up with Li there and fight with Li there, blood and steel and flames everywhere, the only light in the dark, and Li's face is still burning even now. It's never going to stop. Jet is never going to stop burning either, it just isn't as visible but it haunts him constantly.

Jet wants it all so badly, and he doesn't understand how Li can say no. He's trying so hard to give up on what he's become, he's trying so hard to stifle everything that he's lived for these long years in the forest, and Li is trying too, Jet can see it. Second chances. _Why_ can't they do this together? It would be so much easier just because it's Li, because they had an instant connection that Jet _knows_ wasn't one-way (Li said yes too easily and moved with him in the dark and met his gaze and their understanding seared the air between them), because they are the same person just in different packaging and they could save each other.

Li knows what it's like to live with fire all around. Li knows what it's like to fight yourself because you know it's wrong to be this way. Li had the fire forced upon him just as surely as Jet did, Li was happy once and then the Fire Nation burned that right out and left their embers inside him instead and they caught and lit and nothing can douse them now – but he's _trying_, just like Jet. A second chance. They could do it together.

Jet can't put any of it in words but he doesn't plan to give up. He doesn't plan to ever stop until he has Li in his bed and in his Freedom Fighters and combusting right there with him until maybe they destroy themselves or maybe manage to tamp it down to just a candle-sized flicker, something controllable but never extinguished.

Jet wants Li. He's never wanted anything so much in his life.

And then he sees Mushi bending fire and everything crashes down but he wants to laugh out loud because he still can't think of anything but the taste of Li's mouth and scar and heart, and he wants it more than ever, wants to burn himself all over again because of course he is _just the same as Li_.

Li is fire, just as Jet imagined. Except he controls it, not the other way around, and he is not just the one being burned, he's also the one burning Jet's parents and laughing, and Jet is still the same as him because he still _wants_ Li and he was going to kill that entire village and he is never going to stop burning no matter what he does.

He won't let this break him, no matter how easy it would be to let it. He'll expose Li and maybe even kill him and then Jet will laugh and possibly cry, because Li is firebending scum and Jet has never identified with anyone so strongly.

And maybe Li is a spy infiltrating Ba Sing Se and maybe he is just looking for a second chance, and maybe he will burn down the city and maybe he will just let it smother him until his flame goes out and he lives a life made of ashes, serving tea and so much less than he should be and Jet _hates_ that he cares so much.

He can't let Li destroy the city; he can't let Li destroy _himself_ in the name of second chances, it's so painful to watch and he'd rather they both end in a rush of heat and red and that hate that never ends, that constant immolating _life_ on the brink of death, which brings nothing _but_ death, and Jet can manage that. He'll expose Li. He'll make sure it ends with fire.

It can't go any other way. Because Jet still wants Li and they're both still burning, and they won't ever stop.


End file.
